Why the safest political path on daylight saving time is to do nothing 

Daylight saving time ends at 2:00 a.m. on Nov. 1. This summer, the House passed the Sunshine Protection Act of 2025, which would make it permanent year-round.  The 308-117 vote drew support from across the aisle.

This is the first bill to pass in Congress since the Senate passed the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021 with unanimous consent. Yet if Congress falls back into legislative inertia after the midterms, the 2025 bill may never become law, giving false hope for some and wasting the American people’s time once again. 

Given the similarities between the two bills, the 2025 version should in theory have no problem passing in the Senate. But the 2021 Senate bill was passed during a sparsely attended session, with some members expressing concern after the fact. Today, around three-fifths of those Senate members remain in office; on paper, this group may be sufficient to pass the 2025 bill into law. The president will sign the bill into law if it reaches his desk, and has even chastised Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) for not supporting it in the Senate. 

If simply stopping clock-changes were the issue, the Uniform Time Act of 1966 already permits this, giving every state or territory the option to adopt permanent standard time year-round — but not year-round daylight saving time. Arizona and Hawaii are the only two states to adopt year-round standard time, as have several territories, including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Historically, people have expressed a clear preference for daylight saving time, which provides more light year-round in........

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